Ok, obscure 70s Science Fiction/ Bad TV trivia question

[ProfessorPlum]

When I was a little kid, it had to be around 1978 or so, there was a show on TV, I think it had to do with the Bermuda Triangle. Something about a bunch of people who get caught up by the Triangle (from a boat? a plane?) and end up on this island where weird things were happening. I seem to remember there were other people who would pop up and seemed to be controlling things. I also seem to remember the series being cancelled after about 4-5 episodes, being pretty disappointed about it, and having my father pretty much tell me that the show sucked anyway so not to worry about it.

Does this ring any bells at all? Can anyone tell me what was the show, where it ran, how many episodes it had? Whether it was truly as bad as all that?

Thanks,

PP

[Metatron]

1. Could it be Fantastic Journey?

(The following is from http://www.magicdragon.com/UltimateSF/tv-chron.html#TV-1970s)
Fantastic Journey, NBC, 3 Feb 1977-13 Apr 1977
Not to be confused with "Fantastic Voyage" (based on an Isaac Asimov novel), this TV series started with a university's research boat finding an unmapped island in the Bermuda Triangle. Unknown even to Gilligan, this island had a weird "time and space warp" which allowed the comingling of past, present, and future (somewhat as in Dr. Fred Hoyle's novel "October the First is Too Late"). Dr. Fred Walters went into the space-time warp, where he encountered four characters lost in time: Varian, a 23rd century telepath; Liana, from an ancient Atlantis; Scott, a contemporary boy with psychic powers; and Dr. Jonathan Willaway, an eccentric scientists from the 1960s who preferred the company of androids. There was a network of character conflicts between these five, and what promised to be a lengthy episodic search for the home space-and-time of each, complete with strange creatures and thrilling adventures, but the ratings also were becalmed in the Bermuda Triangle.

[ProfessorPlum]

2. That HAS to be it.

Thank you very much. I can now stop wasting brain space on it :)

[CBGLuthier]

3. Asimov did not write the novel first

I know you just snipped it, but that site has a mistake. Asimov wrote a novelization of the film.

I rmemember he later wrote a short story that tried to present a more realistic version of the possibilities of miniaturization as he himself felt there were way too many holes in Fantastic Voyage.

But hey, didn't Raquel Welch look great in that wetsuit. :-)

[Metatron]

5. Interesting - I didn't realize that.

:)

[phantom power]

6. yes, he also finished his novelization before the film got finished,

which is one reason that some people assumed the movie came from the book, instead of the other way around.

[Enraged_Ape]

7. Man, I love that movie

I can't imagine they haven't remade it recently. Can you imagine what they could do with contemporary CGI?

And I nominate Gina Gershon to take over the Racquel role of Dr. Cora.

[CBGLuthier]

8. good news bad news

Rumors are they will be remaking it.

The bad news, James Cameron. Well, maybe that isn't bad news. At least this time when he steals an idea it will be sanctioned. :-)

[ProfessorPlum]

4. Link to a more thorough description

http://www.cult.tv/index.php?cm_id=80&cm_type=article

[hyphenate]

9. Yeah

Fantastic Journey was produced by Bruce Lansbury (Angela's brother). It was 1977.

Here's a good link for it:

http://www.tvtome.com/FantasticJourney/


Another show that was very similar in tone that was produced and shown almost 10 years later is Otherworld. Details on it can be found at:

http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-1907/Otherworld/